The Charitable Measurement Initiative: Convincing Donors to Use the Framework

Welcome to the Charitable Measurement Initiative!

The Charitable Measurement Initiative is a collaboration of people and organizations that are deeply committed to the belief that social change organizations can mobilize significant new and better investment if they are able to implement a measurement reporting framework that credibly communicates their real impact to donors. The Initiative is directed by GiveIndia and calls on the resources of pilot program partners Keystone Accountability, Global Giving, and New Philanthropy Capital, as well as many other organizations committed to social welfare.

The process began when we decided to combine our previous experiences in humanitarian and charitable work with our current work as corporate lawyers. We sought to find a group in India that was looking to incorporate capital markets/securities concepts in reporting and analysis to create more valuable and transparent information.

Thankfully, we were put in touch with GiveIndia. Give discussed the idea of running a pilot program implementing the Keystone framework developed by Keystone Accountability to see if we could help organizations more clearly articulate the outcomes they wanted and better communicate their actual results to donors. This was exactly what we were hoping to do and gladly agreed to donate a year of time to making this work.

While we were in London, Give put us in touch with Keystone Accountability and New Philanthropy Capital. After many meetings throughout the spring and summer, we arrived at our joint creation – the Charitable Measurement Initiative – and a plan as to how we would seek to help NGOs in India become more transparent, responsive, and efficient, as well as help donors become more engaged and involved.

Monday, January 7, 2008

Convincing Donors to Use the Framework

This is more of a note to remind us that we need to tie the donors into this project, as well. We are definitely focused on how to get NGOs to use the maps that they are creating and to seek feedback and input, but haven’t made a lot of plans for how to get the donor’s to use these maps. One way might be in the MOU to say that donors will also provide a response to the NGOs feedback reports. The problem is I am worried that donors will just not do this or sign anything. It may have to be based on trust. If we show them good groups and these groups provide good feedback then they will expect that from then on from other groups. In that case, we need to be educating donors as to why this information is the right information.

Any background information that anyone has on this topic would be greatly appreciated. (I know there is a lot, but what I am hoping for is to create a list for donors with a short summary so that they can do some reading if they are interested.)